Betfair Poker is owned and operated by Sporting Exchange Ltd., making it one of the few "independently" run poker sites left online. Yet, this has in no way detracted from the site's quality in comparison to iPoker and OnGame members.
Launched in 2000, Betfair has quickly become one of the "primo" betting and gambling sites, cementing its position as a poker site by buying Pokerchamps.com in 2005.
All fanfare aside, though, Befair Poker does enjoy many advantages its networked competitors don't due to the fact that it's owned and operated by such a sporting juggernaut. Indeed, Betfair Poker leans on Betfair.com to great effect, attracting its parent site's massive sports-betting base with equally massive promotions - including a range of loyalty bonuses and sign-up rewards like the $150 the site pays out every Wednesday.
Betfair is also backed by dependable software. Although privately developed, it offers a remarkable functionality, is user-friendly and makes an ideal starting point for new players. It, meanwhile, remains extremely stable and is continuously updated with new features and gimmicks, like the recently added multi-table option that allows players to participate in up to 15 games simultaneously.
Multi-table play of this kind is a real rush when compared with the usual four or five-table maximum. By giving players a 15-table option, Betfair Poker has managed to push the concept to its absolute limit - an approach we here at Poker.Gamblingplanet (and probably any poker player) can appreciate.
Other standard features include player notes and statistics and the "Player Buddy" program - which gives players a chance to replay individual hands. These well thought-out and very practical features highlight the solid software Betfair has to offer and evince the enormous amount of time and energy that's gone into the site's infrastructure.
What's more, as part of a much larger sporting conglomerate, Betfair Poker boasts an experienced, capable and dependable support staff that is always ready to deal with members' problems.
Games at Betfair Poker are primarily fast and loose at its low- through no-limit Hold'em tables. Yet, for those still fretting over wobbly poker feet, Betfair also provides plenty of low buy-in tournaments and freerolls and seems to be setting the industry standard for promotionals with its "Threedom Pass" tournament - which allows players to win free buy-ins to live tournaments for an unprecedented three straight years.
As for cons, the site's traffic volume could be higher, with merely 1,000 ring-game and 4,000 tournament players during its peak hours. This, however, should slowly start to change as Betfair shoulders its way into the European market and some less competitive sites fall by the wayside.
Taken on the whole, then, we can't help but award Betfair Poker a solid 9-star rating. It's not every day, after all, that you’re given so many reasons to recommend a site and so very few to criticize it.
